Category Archives: Communications

Masai warriors are fierce. Yet the traditional Masai greeting is a tender question: “Kasserian Ingera?” or “Are the children well?” The traditional reply: “All the children are well” signifies that life is good, because the children are growing and flourishing.

Thursday the middle school Eagles assembled at a nearby ranch for a celebration of the year, with obstacle course challenges, swimming and fellowship.

Late that night we circled around a campfire. Eagles reflected on the past months of hard work, describing how they had grown and sharing “greatest lessons learned.” Words of gratitude flowed from friend to friend, directly from the heart.

We welcomed dawn from a mountaintop, looking towards the horizon in silence, with reverence and anticipation for the year to come. On leaving, each Eagle made a sacred pledge to future growth, the growing pile of stones a group commitment to the individual dreams of each young hero.

Last night, we celebrated with parents and friends, listening to speeches from graduating Eagles. We left in awe of our young heroes, with great hope for the future they will create.

This session we started what will be a continuing series on the Six Traits of Writing: Ideas; Organizing Ideas; Sentence Fluency; Voice; Word Choice and Conventions (Grammar.)

Our long term goal is to equip Eagles to write clearly, convincingly and beautifully, each with an original voice that can be tuned for different audiences and genres. We want to inspire CommunicationNinjas emboldened by Ninjato Tools – named after the swords ninjas wield — rather than Language Robots, who see each tool as a hard and fast rule.

For example, our focus this week is on Brevity in Sentence Fluency.

A Sentence Robot hears a suggestion like “try short sentences” as a hard and fast rule, and makes every sentence short. A Sentence Ninja uses sentence crafting tools to tease out and clarify ideas from a sentence, and then decides whether to string ideas together in a rhythmic way or let some ideas stand alone.

Eagles worked in groups of six on Tuesday, breaking a handful of long sentences into individual ideas. Some then recombined the ideas; others let them stand alone, with much arguing and discussion about which approach yielded the best results.

For example, Eagles reworked this sentence: “I killed him even though didn’t want to because he gave me no choice.”

Some struggled before one Eagle identified the first idea as: “I killed him.”

An Eagle who was passionate about film, argued for this version: “I killed him even though I didn’t want to. He gave me no choice,” before realizing that no character would ever speak this way.

This led to a more pleasing revision: “I killed him. I didn’t want to; he gave me no choice.”

Eagles practiced the following steps:

Ninjato Brevity move #1: Break down into exactly one idea per sentence.

Ninjato Brevity move #2: Remove unnecessary words.

Ninjato Brevity move #3: Recombine in a way that delivers ideas in a logically powerful and/or rhythmically beautiful form.

Then Eagles performed surgery on the following sentence, written by a Guide as part of the new Badge Requirements: “Do your best work and be sure to contribute details from your own life and examples and quotes from the lives of heroes you respect because these apprenticeship pieces will go into your Apprenticeship PLP and be part of your first Apprenticeship Badge.”

Why not give it a try yourself, and see if you qualify as a Sentence Ninja?

Those of us who hire employees know searching for the right person too often requires a depressing swim through a sea of commodity-like resumes and many cover pages strewn with grammatical mistakes and misspelled words.

So imagine you open an email, glancing down the text to see a picture of a whimsically dressed eleven year old, holding an equally whimsically dressed puppy. Then you start to read:

Dear Ms. Cxxxxxxxx,

I visited xxxxx last year with my mom, and it was one of the most beautiful, fascinating, imaginative, and inspiring experiences of my life. I learned so much about the methods and processes used to create beautiful clothes and how travel can work to inspire new creations. I admire you (and those you work with) so deeply for what you contribute to this world. I am so grateful for that experience, and I will cherish it forever. Thank you for spending time with us and giving us a tour of this beautiful space.

At my school here in Austin, Texas (Acton Academy), we believe in learning by knowing, learning by doing and learning by being. Each student is committed to their individual journey to find their passion. Otherwise known as, The Hero’s Journey. We each are blessed with our own gifts, talents, and callings. We nourish them every single day, so we are prepared to change the world some day.

The main gift that I focus on is fashion. I hope to bring beauty to the world, and inspire everyone to be themselves, and have their own style. As an 11 year old middle schooler, I am beginning a fashion blog very soon, and styling a fashion photo shoot with a local fashion photographer and a few friends, which I will then pitch to a magazine. I also designed and created a fashion look book last fall. I styled it completely by myself, and shot the photos on my own, as well. I sold them $15 each at a children’s business fair, and nearly sold out. I will mail one to you if you are interested.

Fashion is a huge part of my life, and I believe it is one of the things that makes us unique and authentic. I would love everyone to believe in that statement someday, and I am wondering if you would help me by considering my request for an apprenticeship.

We are nearing the end of our school year. Our next step on our journey is to find an apprenticeship with someone who is considered a hero to you. The apprenticeships will be one or two weeks, and each of us will work with our hero, doing what they do to see if we enjoy it, and want to further pursue it. I immediately thought how amazing it would be to work with you. Inside one of the most beautiful fashion studios in the world. I will be very helpful, and never in the way.

Please be in touch with me if you would allow me to do this, or if you would like to talk more about it with me or my mom. Thank you so much for considering this request.

Very sincerely,

Reese Youngblood

(Reprinted with permission from Reese and her parents.)

How would you reply? Would you hire Reese as an apprentice, if fashion were your calling?

Here’s the reply Reese received:

Hello, dear Reese,

Your letter has touched my heart. I love the sweet clarity of your vision. Its timing is impeccable and poignant as I spent the weekend writing about my heart’s desires and my own heroic journey. I will need to speak with Christina who is not here right now. But if it were only up to me, I would say yes in a heartbeat! I have an idea that I will propose to my partner and we can see what happens. It would give me great pleasure to have someone as bright, passionate, focused, capable and talented as you are as my apprentice because it is my experience that not only you would have something to learn from me, but I from you, too!

I will keep you posted. In the meantime, can you tell me more about the practical aspects and time constraints of your apprenticeship. What is the possible time period – from now until end of June? Or? And more practical considerations such as housing and food – is your mom going to come with you?

Thank you!

Cxxxxxxxxx

When we critiqued Reese’s email in the studio and reviewed the reply she received, one Eagle chirped: “That sounds like a ‘yes’ to me.” We all agreed.

Graduates from prestigious colleges increasingly find themselves unable to find a job, and must move back in with their parents. Perhaps these graduates should be looking for a calling instead.

Not to mention that a few lessons from an eleven year old about how to write an irresistible email might help too.

Sugata Mitra is the father of the Hole-in-the-Wall experiments, where in poor neighborhoods all around the world, he installed computer terminals that allow students to “self-organize” to learn.

In case after case, the poorest of children — without a teacher or school – outscored the most privileged private school students in their countries, leading to Mitra winning the first $1 million TED talk prize. Mitra went on to create Granny-in-the-Cloud, an army of British grandmothers who acted as virtual Running Partners (coaches) for Sugata Mitra’s students.

Now, Sugata Mitra will be coming to Acton Academy the second week in June, to lead our Eagles in a SOLE (Self-Organized-Learning-Environment.)

How does a SOLE work? Eagles form into four person teams, around one computer. Mitra asks a compelling question, and the Eagles go to work. An hour or so later, the teams convene to present their findings.

Here’s an example of a SOLE Sugata Mitra led for group of poor Indian children a few months ago:

He started with a story:

“Five hundred years ago, barbarians invaded India and were repelled, because the natives had better weapons, forged from superior steel. The barbarians regrouped, wondering how to acquire such steel. One suggested: ‘Perhaps we could just offer to buy some steel from them in the normal course of trade.”

Another replied: ‘Surely they would not fall for such a trick.’ But they did. The barbarians analyzed the steel and created a superior metallurgy, forging weapons three inches longer.

Because of that three inches, the barbarians were successful in their second invasion, changing India forever.”

Mitra then asked his question: “What were the metallurgy changes and the science that made the extra three inches possible?”

He left and came back a week later. The presentations were powerful, incorporating deep questions in and lessons about chemistry and metal working.

Mitra then issued his second challenge: “What problem can you find in the world today, where ‘three extra inches’ would change the world, and how would you propose to solve it? I’ll be back in two weeks.”

A compelling story to set the stage. A powerful question. Four students, a computer and a great deal of faith. No adult in sight. Perhaps the most effective curriculum and classroom of all.

(By the way, during his visit to Acton, Mitra will invite an Acton parent who knows little about science to lead a second SOLE on physics. Consider it our chance to learn from a modern day Socrates.)

As our end of session celebration, we invited parents and other adults to an exhibition honoring Scientific Heroes, the men and women who improve the world through creating new ideas (like Einstein); new inventions (like Edison) and new innovations (like Ford.)

Guests were asked to listen to one minute video pitches, to see which full length Eagle speeches they wanted to attend (there were six speech pods going on simultaneously) and then mingle among the various Rube Goldberg contraptions honoring different scientists. (Here’s a link to some of the video pitchers: http://vimeo.com/user26478640/videos )

The votes of the crowd would decide not only the best pitches, best speeches and best Rube Goldberg contraptions, but also whether the Explorer, Inventor or Innovator team would win the grand prize – a trip on Friday to see a documentary about how Vermeer’s paintings were made.

The speeches were terrific, as each Eagle stood in the shoes of a Scientific Hero he or she had chosen, and explained what motivated the hero to persevere through hardships and failures to create a idea, invention or innovation that changed the world.

The votes were tallied. There was a narrow margin between the three teams. Now it was time to trigger the first of twenty four sequential Rube Goldberg devices; for every device that failed, the corresponding team would lose 100 points.

In other words, the entire contest would come down to the reliability of the Rube Goldberg devices. (In the unlikely event that ALL the Rube Goldberg machines worked, everyone would win a trip to see the documentary.)

A drum roll; then the big moment. The first machines were flawless; then a vibration from a guest sent one machine off prematurely; then another failure and another. By the end, the Inventors won by a narrow margin.

Some Eagles were crestfallen; they had worked hard on their Rube Goldberg machines, adding redundancies and testing, only to seem them fail because of a quirk or unexpected error.

Of course, the odds were against them. Some Rube Goldberg videos require up to one hundred takes to reach perfection, even with professionals in charge. But the objective wasn’t success, but deep hands-on-learning to better understand what motivates a hero to keep trying, even after public setbacks.

Our Eagles certainly got a real taste of what it feels like to be a real Explorer, Inventor or Innovator. It’s very, very hard work.

This week our Eagles will host an exhibition, including each performing a “Four Minute Speech in the Shoes of a Scientific Hero” in front of a roomful of adults.

Recently several Eagles requested to change the speech criteria to “no less than four minutes and up to eight minutes.” Quite a few had done so much research that they wanted more time to tell their hero’s story.

So what did we do? After all, Guides don’t answer questions.

We decided to turn the organization of the entire exhibition to the Eagles. The only two constraints:

(1) The total time could not exceed one hour, out of respect for our guests, and

(2) Speeches will be judged on “value per minute,” to encourage conciseness.

How do we decide whether the quality of an Eagle’s work is ready for an Exhibition?

Answer: the Eagle has to pitch to his or her studiomates, requesting a “green light” to proceed. This session’s Four Minute Speech; the 30 Second Video and Rube Goldberg device each required a separate pitch.

What follows a pitch? First, a warm/cool critique, offering affirmation and suggestions for improvement. Then, a vote.

What if the green light approval is denied? You go back to the drawing board, make improvements, and try again. That’s what heroes do when they fail: they get back up, dust themselves off, and get back to work.

BTL (Between the Lines) is a mentor text literary analysis discussion format designed, led (and named) by Acton Eagles. Below are the guidelines the MS Eagles came up:

Purpose of BTL:Through reading and discussion, analyze mentor texts (chosen by Eagles in the genre of their current writing project) to lift the curtain on the secrets of masterful writing.

Format: Small group discussions led by Eagles who pitched a text and persuaded a minimum of 3 others to sign on.

Points:5 pts if you pitch, 20 pts if you lead a discussion (and are ranked an average of 4 or higher by your group), 10 pts if you participate. OPTED OUT on your SMART goals sheet if you opt out.

Pitching:Sign up by Friday to pitch on Monday. A qualifying excerpt or text must: – stay within the genre you are writing in (this session, biography/ autobiography) – be no longer than one chapter, but as short as one paragraph – stand alone and convey at least one complete idea – be an example of masterful writing (person who chose the text must be prepared to defend their decision)

Participating in a BTL: To sign up as a discussion participant, you must agree to: – read text at least 2x – read and think about the discussion Q’s provided – Come up with one new question of your own about the author’s writing style or the craft of writing

Leading a BTL: BTL discussion leaders will ask questions designed to: – deepen understanding of the text – help the reader understand the writer’s technique and intentions – reflect back onto the Eagles’ own writing with an eye towards improving their skills

In this week’s pitching session, three Eagles showed their powers of 30-second persuasion, sharing a sampling of their discussion questions and each using their own unique hook. One touted the length of his mentor text excerpt: “Only one paragraph! Much shorter than the others!”. Another handed out “free” samples as teasers. The third offered a warning: “This excerpt is rated PG due to adult language!”. (Caveat to parents: the subject is Clara Barton, so it’s probably not too risqué).

While those hooks may have helped, don’t be fooled- it was the power of the questions that lured participants to sign up. The Eagles love a meaty discussion and will not tolerate a lack of substance in their BTLs!

How can an Eagle capture the ideas of a Scientific Creator in a Rube Goldberg machine?

Here’s a glimpse of one Eagle’s Scientific Hero, Isaac Newton. If you look closely, you’ll see that each step demonstrates one of Newton’s Three Laws of Motion, and ends with an apple dropping off the table.

Now imagine twenty four of these Rube Goldberg devices, lined up in a purposeful order, telling the story of Explorers of Ideas (like Newton), Inventors and Innovators; each triggering the next to begin.

Remember that special English teacher who taught you to write? How he or she labored to edit papers, filling the margins with red scribbles? A noble effort, but one with limited scalability. Also too easy for weaker writers to hide in the shadows until the waves of red ink subsided.

How do we encourage Eagles at Acton Academy to improve their writing skills, without involving an adult? By having a community where each Eagle is expected to become a strong writer, and each Eagle’s writing is posted for all to see.

We begin with a challenging question at 9 AM Monday morning. For example:

You are a noted astrophysicist who discovers a large asteroid is likely to destroy earth in 30 days. Will you:

Spend time with your spouse and ten and twelve year old children, who you have neglected because of your career;

Dig deeply into your spiritual life and whether God and an afterlife exist; or

Answer the President’s call to help launch a missile to destroy the asteroid, even though you believe this is a futile effort?

By Tuesday afternoon, first drafts begin to go up on a board, without a name attached. Someone from your Writing Group will choose your paper to critique, offering specific advice after learning about a new topic such as “strong opening sentences” or “choosing vivid verbs.” Specific lessons about grammar come from an online program, ironically called “No Red Ink.”

On Wednesday afternoon, Writing Groups assemble and someone reads your paper aloud, as each team member offers “warm” and “cool” verbal critique, to add to the written critique you’ve received.

Now it’s time for revision and perhaps a pass through an automatic grammar checking program, imperfect but a good start. Next drafts must be posted by noon on Friday, with your name attached. You read your final draft aloud to your group, and a winner is chosen. The best work is read aloud to the entire class, and a Journal contest winner is chosen for the week.

If this is a particularly important paper, it may be revisited and polished next week as well.

Notice that your work always is posted for all to see. You and others must walk past it every day. Many pause to read the writing of others. It’s almost impossible to resist comparing your writing and looking for ways to improve.

Learning to write well, in community, through hard work and revision, with no adult intervention. No red ink required.

In a traditional school, learning to write means a paper filled with red marks; reading a textbook on grammar; or listening to an adult drone on and on about Faulkner (the distorted wah, wah, wah of Charlie Brown’s teacher comes to mind.)

At Acton Academy, the first step towards becoming a writer is developing a love of reading. Next comes journaling: getting observations, thoughts and feelings on paper to share with others. Group critique with warm and cool feedback serves as a catalyst for the difficult art of revision.

Yet, this somehow feels incomplete. At some point a writer needs to hone her or his word crafting skills. No Red Ink is an interactive program that helps with grammar, as do the best computer grammar checkers, but this is more about art than convention.

So we asked each Eagle to choose a specific type of word to research – a pronoun or adjective or even more specific term. Then to prepare a Prezi celebrating the word.

Pods of eight shared their creations, and voted on the two best presentations from each group. The semi-finalists from each pod shared with the entire studio.

The result – lots of enthusiasm. Full coverage of every type of word, several times over. Energy; sharing with peers and more finely honed tools: a fertile soil for cultivating powerful writers.

Eagles are working in teams to write, produce and sell a “bestselling book” in less than nine weeks. A daunting challenge.

Launching the challenge several weeks ago was entrepreneur Clint Greenleaf, whose experimentation as an author led to building a self-publishing empire.

Today entrepreneur Yuen Yung, famous for securing $1 million for his How Do You Roll sushi empire on Shark Tank, arrived to hear publishing pitches from the Eagles.

As requested, Yuen was tough, peppering the Eagles with questions about customers and Unit Economics. The performances were – shall we say – uneven. Eagles know they have a lot of work to do in the next month. But they were brave enough to pitch, and that matters a lot.

Afterwards Yuen said: “Wow. I would have never been able to do that at their age.”

Today was our first major peer critique of the bestselling book project.

Eagles have brainstormed ideas; chosen a topic and finished (most of) a rough draft. Next comes the hard part, revision, where main points must be clarified, ordered, deleted and supplemented.

Revision is the most difficult part of writing, more like major surgery as opposed to the finer shaping and tucking that occurs while editing.

If you a Guide, now is when your palms get sweaty. Have we asked too much? After all, it’s crazy to expect middle schoolers to write, produce and sell a book in an eight week period. Right?

Today the Eagles formed into three to four student critique groups. Each was asked to force rank each rough draft based on the following criteria:

Main point: The main point or question of the book is crystal clear and stated in the introduction.

Chapters: Each main point or question clearly and seriously contributes to the overall main point.

The order of the chapters makes sense.

There are enough facts, quotes and stories to back up the main points in each chapter.

The perspective (first, second or third person); tense (past, present, future, other) and mood are consistent.

The introduction: immediately engages me; makes the audience and main point or question clear by making a promise and describes the journey we will go on together (the main points.) The conclusion restates the main point or question; describes the journey we have gone on (main points) and makes a persuasive case that the promise has been fulfilled.

Eagles formed in groups of six. Each debating pair faced off, one by one. Rock, paper scissors to decide who would start. The Opener had two minutes minimum; three minutes maximum “in the box;” then the Challenger followed.

Rebuttals came next; each side allowed two minutes to spot logical fallacies or attack with logos, ethos or pathos. Finally, one minute each to close, with the Challenger going last.

All of this captured on video, for later debriefing.

Some Eagles had too little material, and had to stand “in the box” (a taped area on the floor) until the minimum time expired, a reminder of what would happen on Thursday if you didn’t have enough to say. Some had too much material, and would have to pare.

Each Eagle received a critique; first warm critiques of praise; then cool critiques with advice of how to improve.

Then it was time to download and review the video. All getting ready for Thursday’s Debates and Personal Learning Plan presentations.

Soon “standing in the box” would be all too real, in front of a live audience.

We launched this morning with a Sal Khan video on the beauty of Algebra, a first step in helping Eagles choose between Algebra, Geometry and Trigonometry as their next math challenge.

The speed at which the group is mastering PreAlgebra is impressive.

So is Khan Academy’s ability to track each Eagle’s progress, including each question, each answer and the time to complete each problem.

As the math becomes more difficult and increasingly conceptual, the Khan videos will become even more important.

Later in the day, the Eagle run Journal Contest asked: What will you choose as your next math challenge? Here’s what one Eagle wrote:

“No question; no doubt; no maybes: Algebra. Algebra is one of the most useful tools in the world because it covers so much. Trig uses variables. Geometry uses variables. Algebra can write formulas to solve almost anything.

You saw the video this morning. You heard what Sal said. Isn’t it incredible how two completely different real world problems can be solved using the same equation?

Algebra can help us span the gaps in our understanding of the universe. Math is the universal language and Algebra is its sub language and best friend. I look forward to getting to know it better myself.”

Learning new math skills is important. Knowing why learning a math skill matters to your life is more important; and knowing that math can be beautiful, matters even more.

At key turning points, great leaders use powerful words to change the world.

Yesterday, each MS Eagle gave an original ten minute speech, standing in the shoes of a great leader, at a particular place and time. Winston Churchill; George S Patton; Joan of Arc; Nat Turner; Sam Houston; Ethan Allen; Pocahontas; William B Travis; George Washington and others.

Over a six week period, draft after draft of the speeches were written, focusing on Ideas; Organization; Sentence Fluency; Word Choice; Voice and Convention (grammar.) Peer critiques were provided, but not one word of text was changed because of advice from an adult Guide.

Then time to verbally draft. To listen for which words had impact, cadence and flow; to eliminate others. To hone the delivery and solicit the advice of peers. Could middle schoolers really teach each other how to give powerful speeches?

Yesterday, we found out the answer, in front of a roomful of parents, elementary school Eagles and other guests. The results were stunning. Truly stunning. At times you felt that Churchill or Houston or Joan of Arc were in the room. The words were beautiful. So were the deliveries.

Then time for a celebration. A well earned celebration.

Our Eagles now know that when called on to give a world changing speech, they can deliver. Quite a skill to have in your quiver. Even more amazing that you and your friends taught each other how to do it.

A young Winston Churchill prepares to address Londoners during the Battle of Britain, 1941. Nothing quite concentrates the mind like a good hanging, unless it’s a fast approaching speech deadline.

The Acton Academy classroom is humming with intentionality. Energy is high. Deadlines are looming. There’s a hint of anxiety in the air – each and every speech must change the world by moving people to action. A high hurdle indeed.

A pause at the end of a busy day and a Guide’s question:

“What will be more important for your long term Hero’s Journey:

Setting and reaching milestones and long range goals?

Planning a trip to anywhere in the world?; or

Delivering a a speech that moves people to action?”

Some of the answers:

“I’ll use goal setting more frequently, and it will be an important skill for my Hero’s Journey.”

“Yes, and being able to plan a trip will come in handy, if I have to travel for my calling.”

“But the technology for trip planning will keep getting better; someday machines may be able to do it. A machine will never be able to give a speech that moves people to action.”

Where will tomorrow’s Churchill’s, JFK’s and Martin Luther Kings come from? Tune in next week for an answer, as a flock of aspiring heroes prepare to give their first world changing speeches.

If a Martian had shown up on campus today and presented that demand, the outcome would vary depending on the moment. Core skills? An elementary school guide who came in to verify the Friday pizza order was amazed at the intensity of the Eagles’ focus. Who led that?

The Socratic discussions during Civilization learning? Well, it depends on which question was put to the group. If it was “If you were a noble during the French Revolution, would you have joined the fight or stayed loyal to the Second Estate?” it would have been Sarah, who came up with the question, which was deemed by her peers to be worthy of discussion. Different question, different student leader.

If our otherworldly visitor had shown up during the journal reflection contest, it would have sought out Claire, who MC’ed the event (after a guide misguidedly tried to tap a student to MC only to be told indignantly that “we’ve already decided who’s doing it”).

Any Mars native who floated in at 2:45 would have been certain that the go-to guy was Crayton, who assembled the troops and set them to task with the surety of General Patton, the notable figure he’s delivering a powerful speech in the shoes of in just a couple more weeks.

And if the Martian had come during Game Time, it would have been certain that the committee of four guests from the elementary school (in the MS to guide our Eagles in learning a rhythm game) was where the power dwells. Happy Friday, and here’s to all the leaders of tomorrow!

We expect far too little of our young people. Really. Even when we know they are geniuses-in-the-making.

Our Middle School Eagles just published a Mystery Anthology, and presented two copies to the Elementary Eagles, who have been competing to see who can devour it first. Today we received this email from on of the ES students:

Hi Ms.Abigail,

I have a blog called Read This! and I recently reviewed your storybook on there. I am sending you the link so if you would like to read it you can. The link is http://readthisnk.blogspot.com/

Sincerely,

Nikita

This afternoon, we found out a Middle School Eagle will have an editorial published in the Austin paper next week, as a result of her apprenticeship.

Finally, and most powerfully, today we asked our MS Eagles to “stand in the box” as they read the rough draft of their hero speeches. We even invited in a flock of Elementary Eagles as an audience, to increase the pressure.

Frankly, I didn’t expect much. It was a first draft of a difficult speech, performed by two of our more reserved Eagles, who had struggled with the assignment. The goal simply was to get them in front of an audience.

Then the first Eagle began to read, and we were all mesmerized by her words. And the the second Eagle delivered a powerful plea to save his homeland from invaders. In both cases, I promise you that anyone within earshot would have answered the calls.

Later, as I was describing the impact of the performances, one of my high powered MBA’s said: “It’s so good that you are teaching them such a critical life skill.”

But you see, we didn’t teach them anything. Each Eagle knew all along how to write and deliver a moving speech, in an original voice.

An eight year old with a blog, writing book reviews.

A twelve year old publishing an editorial in a major metropolitan newspaper.

Being on a Hero’s Journey is not easy at any age. Heroes face challenges, they fail and get up again, they take risks, they show vulnerability. And they use their natural gifts and the tools they’ve developed along the way to guide themselves forward.

Changing the world is hard work, as is writing a speech that you’ll soon deliver in public. Planning a trip for the first time can be a tremendous challenge, but even if you’ve done it before, troubleshooting all the potential pitfalls and organizing myriad details is hard work. And can be extremely…. stressful.

Some say young people should be protected from stress; others say they should “learn to deal with it”. Maybe there’s some truth in both approaches, but the Eagles have found a third way. Drawing upon the work they did finding and understanding their own “shadow selves”, and then finding the gold in those shadows, Eagles are teaching themselves and each other to find the gold in the stress and transform those negative feelings into tools they can use to increase their focus and commitment to the tasks at hand. Alchemize stress into productivity, using their gifts and the tools they’ve aquired along their journey so far? If anyone can do it, it’s the Eagles. Foremost among those tools: friendship.

How do you learn to write a powerful speech? To use your ideas and words to change the world?

Many schools focus on grammar, making sure every apostrophe and comma is in the right place. Certainly we want our Eagles to be able to write and speak in correct English, but we care even more ideas and having an original voice.

So how does one learn to write and speak in a way that changes the world?

First, we believe by seeking out, experiencing and critiquing world class examples, in the case of a speech, The Gettysburg Address or Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech.

That’s why we are drawing inspiration from Corbett Harrison, a teacher who has developed a terrific set of modular tools that students can use alone or with peers to polish their ideas and words.

We’ll break down these critiques into six areas:

Idea – How original and powerful is the idea?

Structure/Organization – Are the ideas are sequenced and arranged in a way that is easy to follow?

Craft

Voice – Does the author’s style make you want to read more?

Sentence Fluency – Are there interesting sentences of different lengths?

Word choice – Are the words vivid and memorable?

Convention – Is the grammar correct?

Eagles will practice force ranking, discussing and providing evidence of these traits not only for Mentor Texts – great works that are provided or found, but also applying them in their own pre-writing, drafting, revising and editing – all with the goal of publishing a powerful piece or giving a world changing speech.

In the revision stage, Eagles will learn to self critique, and solicit and deliver peer reviews and expert critiques.

Writing, speaking and communicating through the visual arts are all skills that are “learned by doing,” in deep relationship with others, while referencing great works of the past.

Note that this requires learners with the courage to think, draft, revise, edit and perform – but not a teacher, at least in the traditional sense.

At the end of this six week session, our Eagles will deliver a world changing speech: standing in the shoes of a historical figure, at a particular time, in a particular place.

Learning to move people, to call them to action, is an important skill for a hero. But the Speech Quest is about more than writing, polishing and delivering a powerful speech.

Eagles also will be required to use Expedia, Trip Advisor and other travel related sites to create an itinerary and budget for a multi-day trip to visit the city where their speech will be delivered, including touring historical sites, museums and other point of interest.

While planning the trip, Eagles will make a “bare bones,” “luxury” and “actual” budget, so they can learn to make the difficult trade offs in time, money, breadth, depth and comfort that traveling requires.

Also included in the Speech Quest is the requirement to create a Google Earth guided tour of the city, including street level views of the sites to be visited, including pictures, images and historical commentary (if you haven’t tried Google Earth – it’s an amazing tool.)

Even the introduction to these tools and the various adventures and expositions has raised important questions, like:

“Why do we travel?”

“Is it for new adventures and new experiences or to learn deeply about a culture?”

“Is it better to spend a little time in many places, staying in hotels, or to spend an entire week or month living with one local family?”

Learning to ask questions is as important as the final product. So is making difficult tradeoffs between time, money and goals. So is learning new cutting edge tools.

There’s only one reason to give a speech: You want to change the world.

No photos from your latest family vacation; no boring PowerPoint slides to control your audience’s attention; no droning lectures to put people to sleep. Simply a moving speech that moves people to action.

Six weeks from now, each Eagle will deliver a world changing speech, as a historical figure, at a pivotal point in time, on a subject he or she feels passionate about. It will be an original speech, drafted, revised and crafted over a six week period.

Today several Eagles were called forward to stand “in the box” for ten minutes to speak on something they care passionately about. The lesson: giving a great speech takes passion AND serious preparation. You cannot just “wing it.”

Next came two hours of Improv training and practice. Because giving a world changing speech means letting go of your fears and saying “yes” to being comfortable being yourself on stage.

At the end of the day, our Eagles went to the Elementary School to present a gift of two copies of last session’s Mystery Anthology, and give each author a chance to pitch his or her story by reading a few lines.

How do you learn to give a world changing speech? You start by having the courage to get into the arena.

Our Middle School Eagles are full of life already, but have been even more inspired lately by earning the chance to guide Acton Elementary School Eagles in Math and Reading.

It’s important to note the word “guide” versus “teach.” We believe the deepest and most powerful learning comes from having a Socratic Guide as your partner, rather than suffering a lecturing adult teacher posing as an expert.

Our MS Eagles earn the right to guide an elementary school Eagle by completing a Learning Badge challenge. Each Learning Badge challenge earns the right to 30 minutes of guiding time, which comes with a learning covenant and feedback on the Guide’s performance. Complete a dozen or challenges and you earn a Learning Badge.

Our MS Eagles consider it a privilege worth working hard to earn, and are lining up to do so.

All Eagles will move from the Independent Learner badge to Running Partner to Socratic Guide to Project Guide to Curriculum Creator, until by high school each Eagle is capable of running a school (or company or non-profit) on their own.

Think of it. An army of bright young people guiding each other, delivering “learn to do” and “learn to be” skills and lessons better, faster and far less expensive than adults.

Flow, the feeling of being “in the zone” while working, is a powerful force at Acton Academy. When an Eagle is in flow in completing a Khan math exercise; reading a book or writing a speech, learning happens at an extraordinary pace.

Collaboration is an important part of Acton Academy too. Sometimes you need a friend to explain a difficult concept, or even more importantly, to ask the right question. Almost all of the real learning at Acton is student to student, not Guide to student.

But collaboration can interrupt flow. And too many interruptions can ruin a two hour block of Core Skills time.

So what to do?

Our Eagles came up with this solution – a Collaboration Request board. Now if you need to ask someone to collaborate, you post a request rather than interrupting. When your potential collaborator takes a break, he or she can check the board and rendezvous at a set time. Plus, we have a record of the peer to peer learning.

Collaboration happens. Flow is protected. Our best ideas come from Eagles. Every time. If we just ask.

As part of the Forensic Psychology Quest, Eagles today experimented with Active Imagination, a challenging technique invented by Carl Jung.

Building on their work in dream analysis and word association, Eagles learned to “daydream” in an intentional way to invite and record conversations with different archetypal characters inside them, revealing inner thoughts and conflicts and clarifying real world struggles.

While Active Imagination at first sounds somewhat “far out,” it was Jung who championed the idea of an inner Hero’s Journey as an important part of fully lived life, and many people have found the technique brings great clarity to important life decisions.

Theory aside, the Eagles were fascinated with Active Imagination, not only taking quickly to the technique, but begging for more time to continue the conversations with the characters who emerged from their unconscious. Several learned extremely powerful lessons about themselves.Add the Active Imagination challenge to a day where Eagles listened to and analyzed a Winston Churchill speech, and several guided younger Eagles in the Elementary School as part of their Learning Badge project, and it was quite an important day for our young leaders who someday will change the world.

We launched this morning by listening to Ronald Reagan’s Challenger speech and comparing it to Franklin Roosevelt’s First Inaugural Address.

The goal is to have Eagles luxuriate in great speeches – soaking in the most powerful words, phrases and symbols as they listen and observe more intentionally.

Next session each Eagle each will choose a historical figure and write and deliver a speech as that character, at an important time and place.

This morning Eagles rehearsed and polished their final Apprenticeship pitches – determined to secure each a real world apprenticeship by April.

How do you grab someone’s attention early in an email, call or in person meeting, long enough to ask an important question?

How do you explain a complex idea like an apprenticeship, in just a few words?

How do you ask for the job; clearly, directly in a way that’s difficult to refuse?

Bravely, our Eagles explored these questions and prepared for the “Big Ask” next week.

Then, in the afternoon, ink blot tests and more Jungian dream analysis, the beginning of understanding the power of that FDR and Reagan’s symbols – and especially the Hero’s Journey — are deep inside each one of us.

Today we returned from break. Only eleven weeks until summer session. Time to put the finishing touches on our learning culture before we let new Eagles into our tribe.

The focus word for this week: Intentionality.

Acting with intention. Being purposeful. Tapping into your passions. That’s what heroes do.

So time to eliminate the trivial; to minimize the unimportant. Time to put all of our energy into learning. Time for a new definition of work times, based on a survey late last session, asking Eagles how we could reduce distractions.

So we created new definitions of the our Work Blocks. All Core Skills time is now silent. We added No Tech Core Skills time, where all computers are closed and Eagles simply read, write and ponder.

No interruptions are allowed – if an Eagle needs to collaborate, he or she posts to a Collaboration Request board. An added benefit – we now have a record of who is helping whom and why.

We also rearranged the desks in the classroom. All of this was based on recommendations submitted by Eagles.

Core skills time was incredibly focused and purposeful today. Deep concentration on “blacking out” Khan skills; serious writing; deep reading. Not a sound in the classroom.

In the afternoon, the launch of an exciting new project. But more on that tomorrow.

We do not like unanimity. Usually, it means we’ve asked a bad question.

This week, Eagles have worked on discussion skills with a sometimes jarring rigor. Their progress has been amazing! Next step: commenting intentionally to one another rather than filtering through a guide. Guides’ big work: to trust, and step aside.

When is the last time you’ve printed out an email for your peers to critique before sending, or took a strong stand in a Socratic discussion, arguing against even your most respected friends? Or shared honest reflections about your efforts through the week, aloud, to a supportive yet competitive team of colleagues? Or made an impassioned speech in front of a small group?

Our students have done all of this, and just in the past 24 hours. They’ve set for themselves quite high standards of excellence. Not always met; five months into this, most of the young adults in our community have experienced failure as defined by their own terms, and every single one has picked themselves back up to try again. Failure or success both possible, but perseverance non-negotiable. And lessons learned that they will never forget.

Back to unanimity: Is asking the Eagles to catch a classmate in the act of committing kindness a weak challenge? Always room for improvement, but it was beautiful to end the day on a chorus of commendations. Never degrading into chaos, all made their voices heard in support of the kindness of their peers. Who won? everyone, of course.

So what’s the connection between a rotten banana and correct usage of the past progressive*? What about a link between precise language, kindness, and a rather annoying buzzer?
Scattered and smothered are fine at the Waffle House but less than optimal for the pursuit of excellence. At Acton, we strive toward holistic cohesion in our curriculum, though juggling many tasks is a real-world skill that also comes into play in our classroom. Ironically from a guide’s standpoint, the task juggling unfolds quite naturally, while the cohesion requires a bit more forethought.
To connect the above dots: Eagles are working as Detectives-in-Training, learning valuable science as they pursue the skills they’ll need to not only solve crimes but also make a persuasive case against a suspect before a jury. At the same time, they are creating their own mystery crime stories, using logic, artistry and their fabulous imaginations to pursue excellence as writers. (* and brushing up on their grammar along the way- though a quick survey of adults on campus suggests that while it’s incredibly important to be able to use tenses effectively, no one actually cares what the tenses are called).

Underlying the “Learning to Know” and the vital “Learning to Do” is the even more essential “Learning to Be”, and a focus on character building and discussion skills permeates every “know/do” quest. In today’s launch, we went over the new student-generated community standards and honor code with a careful focus on defining any potentially vague terms. Terms like “scapegoat”, “cheat” and “bully” were hashed out to a unanimous understanding by the community. Students circled the discussion back to the positive by brainstorming what steps to take to prevent negative situations from beginning/escalating. At the end of the day, we introduced a new reward for our daily Kindness Hero, challenging all to channel their detective skills toward looking for evidence of kindness in their peers.
Throughout all of this, Eagles passed around a buzzer, to hold themselves accountable for accidental use of the verbotten “um”s and “like”s. Hooray for excellence in discussion skills, but here’s one vote for Buzzer-Free Fridays starting, um, now.

At day’s end, Eagles reflected back to lessons learned from the morning’s weekly wrap-up, discussing the amount of effort they’d put into their work vs. the amount of payoff they received in terms of personal achievement and our classroom points-tracking system. In Core Skills they determined individually which work to focus on to best reach the goals they’d set for themselves on Monday.

While all journaled in hopes of winning the weekly writing contest (congratulations, Kenzie!), some focused on Khan skills, others on their Mystery Fiction writing, others on their Apprenticeship Quest work including some beautifully rendered Mind Maps.

Looking for tools to increase focus and help in their pursuit excellence, some students experimented with making their own “Claire Boxes”, named for the Eagle who first had the idea of creating a sensory-deprivation space to block out distraction and help her dive deeply into her independent work.Later in the History Yurt, all Eagles were able to enjoy special personal space with our new eye pillows; Eagles lay back with the lavendar-scented pillows weighing pleasantly against their eyelids and listened to stories from 17th Century England, including the military and political strategies of Oliver Cromwell during and after the English Civil War, and a look at daily London life through the diaries of Samuel Pepys. We learned that one of our Eagles’ ancestors was likely the actual executioner of King Charles! All students are working towards learning about their ancestry as part of their ongoing series of History Challenges.

Enjoy the three-day weekend and have a Happy MLK Day, see everyone on Tuesday!

Many schools focus on subjects like math, reading and writing. At Acton Academy, we expand this list to include Socratic debate, public speaking and using video and other web based forms of communication.

But these are still just tools and skills. Our goal is to equip our Eagles to make decisions and persuade others, so they can change the world.

We launched the day by watching some of our previous class debates on Lucy, our new filming system that allows Eagles to critique their Socratic comments. Watching yourself on film is difficult, but there’s no faster way to improve the crispness and impact of your words.

We continued this theme later in the day with a Socratic discussion on rhetoric – working on persuasion while we practiced it in real time, debating a better system for class clean up at the end of the day.

Eagles explored how using the past tense in a discussion invites blame (“You should have…”) and the present tense suggests standing on principle (“We need to ____ because it’s the only fair thing to do.”) Using the past and present tense tends only to make others defensive or to puff up your own ego.

So we experimented with using the future tense – and offering questions to frame choices – as a way to move others to action. Even after only a few rounds of practice, our Eagles quickly realized the power of being able to frame the debate.

Some important lessons, in the words of our Eagles:

Your goal in a debate is to move others to action; not simply to win an argument.

Questions are more powerful than statements; and

Excellence requires the courage to look at yourself in the mirror (or on film.)

Do what you say you’ll do, or follow your conscience? Do you have the courage to be honest about your choices? In this morning’s huddle, Eagles discussed adding a West Point-style honor code to their governance documents. At issue in particular is internet use during free time. While exploring the repercussions of offering our bodies junk or nourishment, and to what degree the level of tidiness reflects the learning space as a “landfill” or a Studio of Excellence, this age group is facing decisions re drawing boundaries for their interaction with the Web. Student-generated guidelines will be introduced tomorrow after a town hall-style debate, and the decision is firmly the students’ to make. Guides and parents stand together watching this important process, reinforcing the message that this is serious, the community is involved, and we absolutely trust you to argue with each other until you create an agreement that’s right for you.

Today saw the launch of Thursday morning Writers’ Workshops. First project, tying in with the afternoon hands-on Detective Science quest: write a great detective mystery. Eagles brainstormed about elements crucial to a great crime story, listened together to a classic Sherlock Holmes short, then revised their megalist to create their own rubric of excellence in crime/mystery fiction. Agreeing that a detective (whether casual or pro) is a crucial character, they used StoryMatic to jump start ideas for character generation. Until they didn’t. Whoops- a Guide set a guideline without thinking it through all the way to make sure there’s an ultimate WHY. Naturally many students rebelled; they can smell bogus a mile away. In this case, the students were set free to use StoryMatic, or not. Ask your Eagle which they chose. The MS’ers take this seriously at least in part because they know that what they do matters, and that they, as brave and thoughtful adventurers, are creating a path for others to follow.

New path in PE: after an invigorating awards ceremony with certificates for Olympic Champions (whoever exceeded their previous best by largest percentage increase) and trophies for Best Sportsmanship (congratulations Ellie and Pace!), down to the field for….. Wiffle Ball!

Ms. Anna and Ms. Terri challenged the D.I.T.s (that’s Detectives in Training) to learn the science behind fingerprinting and analyzing data from footprints left at a crime scene. Also a great lesson in following directions, as it turned out, and in cleaning as you go. Tomorrow, a look at goal tracking for the week, a Town Hall meeting, the journal reflection contest, history in the yurt and a more meaningful version of (offline) Game Time.

The first day back from break almost always is a challenge. The second day, better.

We opened with a clip from Whodunnit – a wonderful test of our Eagle’s observational powers. Attention to detail matters. It matters for a writer who uses crisp details to hook you into a story; it matters to a cook who needs “everything in its place;” it matters to a detective at a crime scene.

We also are tightening the focus on goals – long term goals for the session; weekly SMART goals; daily goal check ins with Running Partners.

After setting ambitious goals for all three, Eagles were back at work in Khan for math; were introduced to our new Mystery Writing challenge by Ms Abigail; and continued on their Detective Quest with hands on work collecting fingerprints and documenting a crime scene.

The last minute preparations were frantic – the final editing of films; the fine tuning of games; last minute pitch practice: all underway while Eagles simultaneously built their semester end portfolios and shared final “lessons learned” in a number of important areas.

And then it was showtime. The room filled with customers, and the game play began:

Pitches were made to real customers, with each Middle School Eagle trying not only to best their classmates, but to defeat the dreaded Elementary School Eagles competing alongside them.

Once the games were finished, it was time for the film festival to begin:

The smell of popcorn in the air. The anticipation of launching something you created out into the world, for all the world to see. Two noted filmmakers in the audience.

In the end, there were technical glitches. Two of the films weren’t very good; one was fantastic. An Oscar for the Best Picture and awards for the games were presented.

Yes, excellence matters. So does pleasing customers.

But how do you learn how to work in teams towards mastering a skill? By working on exceptional teams and teams that fail. How do you learn of the importance of setting and reaching milestones? By trying to do everything in the last week, and failing. How do you learn to set deadlines early enough to have a series of dress rehearsals? By failing to do so, and suffering the consequences.

Our Eagles have far to go, but oh they have come so far.

And the dreaded Elementary School competitors in the Game Expo? Final score: Middle Schoolers, a average of 2.9 votes per student; Elementary Schoolers, and average of 2.96. Beaten, but not defeated.

Now it’s time to rest, recharge and look forward to a rematch in the spring. For all real creative ability comes from challenge, failure, rebirth and the kind of steely perseverance that leads, in the end, to the excellence of a personal calling.

Now is a time to close some of the powerful learning loops we opened just a few months ago.

Last week, we started by closing the Art loop with an exposition of the Acton Dragons at Amy’s Ice Cream.

Monday, we closed the PE loop with the Acton Olympics, returning to the same challenges Eagles faced in September, to record new personal records (Thanks Coach C!)

On Wednesday, we close the loop on Projects, with the Game Expo and Film festival.

Below, yesterday Eagles practice and critique Game Expo pitches, with the Middle Schoolers feverishly working to defeat the Elementary School challengers by gathering more customer “votes” at the Expo.

All week we are recording reflections on “lessons learned” from Math, Reading, Writing, Building the Community, Science and the Pursuit of Excellence, as Eagles prepare their final end of semester portfolios for Thursday.

Then – on Friday — a review of next semester’s adventures and a final CELEBRATION!

“You can do it! You will have many more opportunities. I will help you if you want help.”

“It’s okay- let’s do it again, so you can get it”, because I do not want them to go through life thinking , “If I fail, it means I’m not supposed to do this”.

“Don’t beat yourself up. Let’s try again.”

These are some of the words the Eagles wrote in their journals this morning as they considered what to say to a friend who fails to reach a goal. The question arose: would you rather work with a partner who succeeds when you fail, or who fails with you? Many stated that they’d want to work with someone who succeeds, so they can learn from that person. Some preferred the idea of learning alongside someone on the same level, making mistakes together, growing together.

“An unstoppable force!” is how one Eagle described a team where one partner’s strengths complement the other’s weaknesses, and vice-versa.

At the start of history class, Ms. Laura asked students: what motivates you? why do you work as hard as you do? and after collecting responses, did a beautiful job of refreshing everyone’s memory about the meaning of Socratic discussion: Socratic discussion is not a debate, it’s a principled discussion. There’s no argument to be won; the point is to seek truth, to seek a new perspective. With these reminders, the Eagles participated in student-led Socratic discovery about exploration before lying down to listen to the story of the rise and fall of Dutch New Amsterdam in the New World.

Teamwork was spotlighted during project time, launched by Ms. Anna with a clip about the product design firm Ideo. The Eagles were taken with this radical approach to collaboration and remarked about how “constructive rather than destructive chaos” could lead to great things. They got to put the concept into action by dividing into small teams to critique each others’ games (link to the ideo video: http://vimeo.com/21086801 use password:academy), reporting afterwards how helpful the extra brain power was in improving their work, experiencing first hand the Ideo mantra of “Enlightened trial and error” outpeforming the “planning of a lone genius”.

The school day closed with a revisit to our Hero’s Journey map, as we come close to the end of this first semester at Acton. The questions of Who am I? What promises must be made and kept? Who’s walking with me? have taken on visceral meaning for these young adults as they’ve looked deep within and asked themselves tough questions, worked hard to fine-tune and adhere to their own systems of self-management, decision making and accountability, and collaborated with running partners and small groups on film and other projects.

But for our Heroes, the learning doesn’t stop at 3:15. Except for a handful of Eagles whose intense sports commitments preclude it, Thursdays are chess club day. Carpe Diem!

So how do you inspire Eagles take control of their own learning? Not an easy question.

Here’s a start. Today’s launch featured three stories:

1. 18-year-old Stacey Ferreira saw a tweet from entrepreneur Richard Branson about a charity event he was sponsoring , flew halfway across the country to meet him and left with $400,000 in funding for her new website.

2. Harvard Education professor Richard Elmore, who has observed over 2,000 classrooms, writes a blog post blasting traditional schools as “custodial institutions, designed to hold adolescents out of the labor force and to socialize them to adult control” adding that the “only other public institution in our society that works this way…is the prison system.”

3. A group of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs announces a new school where “every child is a genius,” giving credit for its inspiration to Acton Academy.

Stacey Ferreira is a hero who shows what our Eagles can accomplish. Professor Elmore paints a dismal picture of the educational alternatives. The Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are proof that what our Eagles’ efforts matter in the world.

During the day, progress continues in Core Skills, including an early glimpse of math in spring, where Eagles will choose independent paths in either Geometry, Algebra or Trigonometry. We also debate a change in self-governance designed to simplify SMART goals.

One Eagle pays off the loan she took out to start the school store:

In the afternoon, Eagles work hard on their Game Quest, some creating board games, others making electronic games, all knowing that next week’s public demonstration is fast approaching:

Story lines and critical thinking are stressed below.

Near the end of the afternoon, two Eagles demonstrate their game prototypes and receive formal critiques.

The end of the day discussion asks what advice our Eagles would offer to the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Is “hard work” or “fun” more important for creating the right learning environment? Which should be stressed first? Should the approach in the elementary school be different than the middle school?

What are the differences between logic, emotion and intuition? Can you imagine circumstances where you’d be wise to use one over the other to make the very best decision?
After pondering these questions in a Socratic discussion, Eagles dove into their core skills work, paying extra attention to their SMART goals tracking as they prepared their end-of-week wrap-ups. Jack won our Friday journal reflection contest, with his response to “What’s the hardest thing you did this week?” (finishing the production leg of The Bandit film; he was lauded by peers for his excellent word choice, details, and dash of humor).

The morning ended with a debate about whether or not humans should colonize Mars, a la Elon Musk’s long-term vision for SpaceX. Eagles implemented terrific discussion skills: “Building on what Mason said, …” “I STRONGLY disagree with Charlie…..”, “I agree with Jack, and I’d like to add….”. One usually vocal student stayed silent until the end: “At first I didn’t have a strong opinion one way or the other, but after listening to the points everyone’s been making, while I really see the value in what Charlie’s saying, I agree with Mason, because…”
It’s inspiring to observe these young men and women listening intently to one another, learning from their peers, and ultimately forming their own opinions.
While most of the Eagles played outdoors during free time, two – then three- then four as the desire to pitch in spread- stayed in to surprise their classmates with a pop-up dance and cupcake party, complete with streamers and helium balloons!
This session’ s theme of celebration seemed to have struck a chord. Special thanks to Ellie and Ana for their thoughtfulness.
After lunch, special guest filmmaker Brandon Dickerson joined us for an editing workshop- not a teacher lecturing to class about how to edit, but a professional bringing in his current project for a hands-on work session. The Eagles prepared by reading over the bit of screenplay (Scene 41) that corresponded to the footage they were going to watch, and examining a set diagram to imagine how the actors would move through the scene. After introducing his fancy new editing software while reminding us that all editing tools are basically “expensive scissors”, Brandon screened his footage. (Heated, of course) discussion ensued regarding which takes to use and how to cut them together to best tell the story.
Afterwards, during an abbreviated version of our usual Friday game time, a guide became so involved in an intense Boggle match that she forgot to keep an eye on the clock…. fortunately one of our student leaders realized it was five minutes past time to clean up for the weekend, and the Eagles worked together to get the job done.
Cooperation, respectful disagreement, spirited competition, and community celebration made for a fabulous Friday at Acton Academy!

One of the biggest surprises about guiding Eagles has been the realization that people learn at a 10X rate when they are inspired, and hardly at all when simply instructed to do so.

Of course, this isn’t surprising when you think about your own learning. Who cares about learning something simply because you are ordered to do so? It also explains why most corporate training fails. Training is for guinea pigs; human beings want to be free to accept or reject challenges, not to be trained..

As Guides, much of our energy goes into creating challenges that matter to Eagles. Difficult, meaningful – and yes, fun challenges. Our goal is to “inspire,” a word whose root means “to breathe life into.”

Long lasting inspiration requires an important quest or journey – a clear path to a worthy Grail. We need an end that matters to our Eagles and a map we can continually refer to update our progress as a group, as in “you are here” and “here’s where we are going together.”

Below is an example of such a map from this section of the gaming quest.

In the gaming project, Eagles have entered design mode. To unlock the final challenge of designing a game for the Game Expo, this week students are working through a series of mini game creation challenges.

Yesterday they designed simple, single-player games of luck, and then manipulated the rules to make their games easier or harder to win. Today they designed games of skill, then added an element of luck to these games to see which version playtesters enjoyed more.

Tomorrow Eagles will get a taste of online game design on Gamestar Mechanic. Next week, students will choose whether they want to design an online or offline game for the Game Expo at the end of the session, at which they will pitch their games to parents and fellow eagles.

Is creating games a trivial skill? Not in the 21st century. Arguably, being able to weave a compelling story and keep people engaged may be one of the most important 21st century skills of all.

In storytelling, images can be even more important than text. And in the Hero’s Journey story, dragons are not only possible, but to be expected. That’s why Eagles have been working in Art on drawing dragons. As they create, Eagles have been listening to “A Tale of Two Cities,” immersed in images drawn with words, as they create visual metaphors of the challenges each will face on their hero’s journey.

Here’s a sample of dragons in the making.

Inspiration, storytelling and maps – keys to learning in the 21st century.

Are you more likely to be disappointed by your laptop or by your best friend? Does it feel worse to be disappointed, or to disappoint someone else? If you don’t keep yor commitments to the community, who are you letting down- your running partner or yourself? Tough questions met with candor and courage by our brave Eagles.

So, back to that laptop… or not. The middle school experimented with 30 minutes of Luddite time, focusing on (analog) reading and writing, before plugging in for their SMART goals,daily check-in and their online work. Collaboration reigned, writers brainstorming monster story plots and presenting drafts for informal peer critique, and math geniuses unleashing their exponential powers of encouragement.

Sometimes it’s Yurt time, and the MS is always grateful when that time rolls around. Ms. Laura launched with the news that scientists have discovered a powerful correlation between happiness and gratitude. After a quick survey of Thanksgiving fun facts, including info about the persuasive letter written to President Lincoln that helped make Thanksgiving a national holiday, students eagerly shared their family Thanksgiving traditions and had the opportunity to write their own letters of gratitude. Those that chose to tackle History Challenge #2 took us back to ancient Rome for some detailed analysis of similarities and differences between their culture and our own, and earned a treasure from the Yurt Treasure Box for their efforts and courage.

Ms. Anna launched today’s probability quest with a video addressing the Monty Hall problem. Initially as confused as the general populace, the Eagles has a collective Aha! / Eureka! moment as they absorbed the implications of the probability swap. Then they got to play games to further their insights, poor things. At the end of the day, Mr. Jeff asked: If you take a chance and lose, is it gambling or investing? What about if you take a chance and win? What if you break even?

Eagles will have a chance to test their hypotheses tomorrow afternoon, when the classroom is transformed into a casino, complete with free sparkling cider for all players. Do you have to be in it to win it? Who knows when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em, and can they back up their instincts with evidence?

And most importantly- who will hoarde/hold out out to cash their accrued chips in for an Eagle buck, and who will choose to spend them on donuts? All bets are off, from this blog’s point of view.

Reading, writing and arithmetic – critical, fundamental skills, and our Eagles continue to progress faster than most middle schoolers – and thanks to Khan Academy and Shelfari, we have proof of their efforts.

But there’s much more to life, and thus should be much more to learning than the basics.

Like playing sandlot football before school starts.

Or in our morning discussion, exploring the right way to hold a film crew huddle, so you don’t waste your time in meaningless meetings (something I wish I’d learned a long time ago.)

Or as a task preparing Eagles for finding the right spring apprenticeship, having our My Hero’s Guide Mr. Temp inspire them with his drumming gifts as he asks: Are you born with powerful gifts or do you have to develop them?

Or having Allan Staker give his Hero’s story about the entrepreneurial ups and downs of starting a video-game company, a twisting tale about the risks and rewards of believing in yourself.

Yes, there’s far, far more to learning in the 21st century than simply the basics.

Tuesday mornings are core skills intensive, with an extra hour for students to work on foreign language, math, reading, and writing. Today they also used some of that time to meet in their film crews as the deadline for getting their projects green-lighted for production approaches.

Art provided a change of pace as students worked on their dragon drawings and studied dragon mythology.

It was election day, and a buzz of nervous energy permeated the room especially during project time when Ms. Samantha presented the opportunity to vote for or against an extra 30 minutes of morning silence in the classroom. Many students were surprised when, despite some preliminary polling that indicated a likely majority against that extra 30 minutes, the final count was in favor of a full hour of silence during core skills. Lesson learned: a poll is a snapshot of the present rather than an accurate predictor of the future.

Today, along with Core Skills and our Gaming Quest, we worked on critiquing skills.

Abigail began the day with our Halloween clad Eagles by asking: “Is it more important when pursuing excellence to practice hard or have a world class example?” and demonstrated how feedback improved a butterfly drawn by a six year old child.

We then each critiqued writing from the Eagle’s journals, so students could practice the art of writing as “re-writing.”

Ms Anna continued the day with a workshop on critiquing itself, using fresh baked zucchini bread as a tool to practice the four rules for critiques: (Be kind; Be specific; Be helpful; and Critique the work and not the person;) as well as a procedure for giving powerful feedback: (1) Presentation of work (audience is silent; presenter asks a focusing question); (2) Audience feedback (warm; cold; warm) and (3) Presenter reflection (comments on how and why the feedback was helpful.)

Eagles ended with a story boarding exercise, sequencing and editing photos to hone their storytelling and story boarding skills for the film project.

In between, Mr Temp held court as Curious George’s Man-in-the Yellow-Hat, discussing this week’s MyHJ “look-in-the-mirror” experience on loyalty (look closely, and you’ll see George in the background.)

Friday started with videos and a discussion about the power of compounding – both in terms of the compounding of interest on money and the power of good deeds to spread throughout a population.

The morning included an intense focus on Core Skills and MyHJ, as Eagles worked hard to catch up on SMART goals before Monday’s deadlines. Ellie also won a close contest for the best “end of week written reflections,” barely edging our Kenzie in voting for the weekly honor and then besting Jack’s entry last week.

Eagles reading and critiquing weekly reflections.

After lunch, there was a mad dash to the finish for the 3 D Game lab challenges on “the past determining the future.” Next week we begin a new quest on probabilities and statistics.

Why can a few distracted students infect an entire learning community? Why is it so hard to keep the classroom clean?

Today we opened with a video on the Tragedy of the Commons and a discussion about why public spaces so often are abused. This was followed by video on Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, followed by a discussion of how a civil society helps intermediate between individuals and government, civilizing the first and restraining the latter.

These discussions, and observations by our MS Eagle “industrial spies” of the alien culture in the AA Elementary School, led our Eagles to propose changes in the classroom architecture and governance. Now we have “quiet zone” three sided cubicles (see http://rubble.heppell.net/places/ ) in one area and two other dedicated classroom areas, each with its own Mayor in charge of maintaining “focus.”

All of this led a a burst of productivity: in Core Skills; in 3D Game Lab and in the Film Project.

Intense focus in Core Skills.

Working on story boarding the Film Project (thanks to Matt Hovis for yesterday’s expert advice!)

Working hard to unlock the final “Does the past determine the future?” challenge in the 3D Game Lab quest.

Many outsiders have been skeptical when I predict we’ll find peer guiding and peer course creation to be far more powerful than using adult leaders. After all, who would believe that a middle or high schooler could be trusted with the learning of an younger student?

Today we had our first real test as two elementary school Eagles, Lazlo and Sam, came into the middle school to lead the six MS Eagles who had reached 50 skills in Khan in an introduction to the Manga High math program (our three MS’ers who graduated from AA ES already know Manga.) Given the round of applause at the end, the mission was a rousing success.

The Elementary Eagles invited the MS’ers to join them in a Manga challenge against a high school. Last year, the ES’ers made it all the way to third place in all of North America, competing against middle schools and high schools.

We worked hard this week on SMART goals and encouraging Eagles to set goals and hold themselves and their Running Partners for “giving their best.” We’ll continue that emphasis in the weeks ahead.

Ms Abigail pushed forward on the film project. Below an Eagle is presenting a specific filming technique he had researched, as Eagles discuss how they might use it in their individual films.

How bright is the future of our Eagles? So bright, they have to wear shades!

Core Skills time featured lots of work on Khan Academy, as well as the Eagles pitching their script ideas to the class. Later in the day, the Eagles voted to turn Charlie, James and Mason’s scripts into real films over the next few months

Later in the afternoon, Ms Anna continued to work with the Pope, Galileo’s team and our panel of judges to prepare for Friday’s trial, and Jasper’s dad David Herman came to give his Hero’s story about working in Hollywood, as well as sharing some tips on acting and directing.

We also implemented Pace’s idea of signalling what mode the class was in: Red for discussion time, with all Rules of Engagement in force; Yellow for collaborative time when students can mill around freely, as long as no one who is focused on work is being disturbed; and Green for free time. Interestingly, we calculated that in the average day Eagles spend 1-1.5 hours in Red (discussion) mode; 1.5 hours in Green (free) mode (including the 30 minutes before class officially starts); and 4-4.5 hours in Yellow (collaborative) mode.

Spending 5.5 to 6 hours intensely “on task” every day is the reason we can pack so much discovery and learning into a single day.

Our Eagles love learning and being with each other. Now it’s time to aspire to excellence.

Inspired by Po Bronson and Ashley Merriman’s NutureShock and Ron Berman’s An Ethic of Excellence, we are turning over even more responsibility for managing the learning environment to the three member Council and the Eagles themselves, but providing them with language to hold each other accountable (see below):

We also introduced a new accountability system run completely by the students themselves:

In Core Skills, students began planning and executing their Khan Academy lessons for the next nine weeks, by which time we expect every AA MS student to have demonstrated mastery in arithmetic and the other AA Elementary School Math skills (many students already have accelerated past this.) Ms Abigail continued guiding students in writing the storyline for their the “Past/Future” film project.

Ms Zoey continued the self portrait project in Art.

Ms Anna introduce the Galileo Trial debate, where over the next several days Eagles will research and assume roles to recreate Galileo’s dilemma of whether to advance or abandon his heliocentric paradigm, with real world consequences for all – either lost freedom for Galileo and his friends (lost free time) or lost riches for the Church (a loss of chocolate coins.)

Today we started to consolidate all of the learning that’s taken place in the last four weeks, by beginning to reorganize and synthesize the portfolios in preparation for
Friday’s celebration.

Eagles also revisited and refilmed their paradigm mini-film projects, each choosing a scientific hero who changed the world by having the courage to introduce a totally new way of looking at the natural world.

Researching scientific heroes.

A rough draft of the timeline for 14 scientific paradigm shifts.

A pictograph of how scientific paradigms are related today.

Ms Abigail continued with the work on the major “How does the past determine the future?” film project.

Some nice words about AA MS from education disruption guru Carolyn VanderArk, who visited a few weeks ago:

A pretty amazing two days of scientific experimentation “in the wild.”

We started our scientific expedition with a Socratic discussion on the one hour drive to the ranch. Eagles debated: (a) which of the six experiments we would conduct was the most important to the world (see previous post); (b) whether or not it would be because of the sheer value of discovery, invention or innovation; and (c) whether the scientific role of Paradigm Buster; Puzzle Poser or Data-Gatherer best suited their personal gifts.

Eagles also practiced their “paradigm video” stories, and in each car we developed “rules of engagement” as to how scientists would act on a real expedition (these would be combined to determine how we worked with each other on the trip.)

As soon as we arrived, it was time for science – and the chance to earn the ingredients for smore’s by solving scientific puzzles . Some photos from a few of the real world challenges:

Using trigonometry to find the height of a tree (also helpful for navigation.)

Levers – “Give me a place to stand and I’ll move the world!”

Using the Pythagorean theory for surveying.

Archimedes and buoyancy: “Is the crown pure gold or not?”

Even scientists need some fun – so we took a break for obstacle course practice and a swim in the river.

Above, our experiments with Radians and the Heavens is thwarted by an overcast, but we were entertained by star gazing myths, smore’s and the Eagles’ gratitude moments. Some of us even got a few hours of sleep.

We ended the trip with a pre-dawn ceremony at the top of Lone Mountain – 360 degree views for miles around — with each Eagle leaving his or her gratitude object, and seeing for the first time the Founding Eagle’s plaque that will forever mark the pioneering efforts of this first Eagle Middle school class.

Then it was back to Austin, on the way listening to stories about Archimedes, Copernicus and Galileo, in preparation for next week’s debate. (And yes, a few Eagles even took a nap when we got back.)

Many thanks for all the parents and Guides who joined in for the adventure!

3. Finally, and most importantly, ask what behaviors would be appropriate for a scientist on an important scientific mission. Ask one student to keep a list that we can discuss when you arrive.

We lightened the core skills workload today, focusing our Khan work on the Pythagorean Theory in order to get ready for our “applied science” ranch trip on Wednesday

Ms Abigail continued her discussion with students about what makes a good story, including a “save the cat” moment to make your lead character likable. Eagles will be practicing their storytelling, writing and filmmaking skills, first honing their scientific paradigm stories, and then shortly thereafter beginning work on a separate film project that will require them to create, pitch, write and film on the question: “Does the past determine the future?”

During project time, Eagles broke into teams to make sundials, inclinometers and star finders that they will use to execute real world science experiments on the ranch.